Four Weeks Pregnant

I'm pregnant!!!!!! 🥰 Come and join me on my pregnancy journey as a childbirth educator, doula and mum to 2 little girls. I'm hoping to share weekly how the pregnancy is going, what I'm feeling, how baby is developing and what I am doing to prepare for birth and postpartum.

I couldn't wait to test!!

What a week! I usually wait till 16-18DPO (days past ovulation) to test for pregnancy, even though my luteal phase is consistently 13 days. But this week I couldn't wait. I was 12DPO, but on day 10 and 11 I'd experienced very mild nausea for no apparent reason. This weekend we're moving house, and... no that's just an excuse really, the bottom line is I just couldn't wait 😂 It was a kind of spur-of-the-moment decision. I'd been going to wait till later, maybe even till my husband's birthday to surprise him, but when I got up at 5am and went to pee I made the snap decision to test. I was so excited that I forgot to put the cap back on the test before I laid it on the vanity unit 😂! I set a 3 minute timer on my phone and even though I had 2 lines before the 3 minutes were up, I made myself to wait the 3 minutes "just to be sure"! And there were still 2 lines 😂 So, so excited!!! 🥰🥰

My 3 year old predicted my pregnancy and gender of baby before I knew I was pregnant!

I forced myself to wait to tell the girls till Simo came home for his morning break. As the girls and I were having breakfast in the kitchen, M was singing to herself, making up songs as she does, and I heard her singing about a baby boy coming out (or as she says so cutely with a mix of English and Italian, "maschio baby"). Last week, before I even knew I was pregnant, she'd asked me if I could pop out a baby boy! So when she said it again, with me knowing that I AM pregnant, I just asked her where the baby boy was, and she said "in your belly"!

Sharing the news with my husband and daughters

When Simo came home he was just as thrilled as me, and then we told the girls straight away. Baby is expected in March, around the time of M's 4th birthday, which is pretty cool! We already have baby names picked out - a boy name since before we had kids, and a girl name which has been one of our runners-up for a while. Now we just need to wait and find out the gender so we can start calling baby by his/her name 🥰🥰

While L had her nap that first day, I rested for half an hour and M lay down with me. I showed her images of babies' development inside the womb and she was so fascinated. Who knows if she'll be a midwife one day! Definitely an informed and educated mum, if she ever has kids! She talks about her little sister's birth on a regular basis. It clearly made quite a big impact on her, in the best sense.

We shared the news with other family and friends the very next day

The next day we shared the news with our parents, grandparents and siblings, and once that was done, we started to tell friends and colleagues. This might sound crazy, at not even 4 weeks' pregnant, but that's how we roll. This is our fourth pregnancy. The first time we didn't tell anyone till 9 weeks, on Christmas Day, and later that day I realised I was miscarrying. Since then we have told everyone straight up. We have no guarantee that we will ever meet this baby, but we want to celebrate him/her and share our happiness with others. Equally, even if we waited till 12 or 18 weeks to share the news, there is still no guarantee. We'd rather live in faith than fear. The flip side is, if we were to lose the baby, we have our friends and family already in the picture to support us, rather than needing to try and hide our sadness or explain it away... This little life is so precious to us, and to our family and friends as well!

What symptoms am I feeling?

4 weeks is very early, and it's quite common not to feel much by way of pregnancy symptoms yet, since the hCG levels are still not high enough to wreak too much havoc. I didn't have any implantation spotting this time (I've had it 2 out of 4 times). As mentioned above, I have felt very mild nausea a few times, but I mean VERY mild. I hesitate even to mention it since I know that for the women who REALLY get morning sickness, what I experienced is absolutely nothing! My biggest symptom in the first trimester is typically fatigue, though there are others as well. Thankfully that's not really set in yet, though I am trying to be conscious of resting a little bit more.

How has baby been developing this first month of the pregnancy?

Week 1: The start of the menstrual cycle which results in conception is classified as the beginning of the pregnancy, even though conception on average takes place around the third week of the cycle.

Week 2: There is still no baby in the picture as mum's cycle carries on. Towards the end of the second week she will typically become more fertile as ovulation approaches. Fertility charting can be useful to help understand when ovulation takes place, and also to help confirm a longer than usual luteal phase (the phase between ovulation and the new cycle), which may indicate a pregnancy.

Week 3: (For the purposes of this description we'll define week 3 as being immediately post-ovulation, though no woman is "average" and there is a huge diversity between "normal cycles", most women will either ovulate earlier or later than the "average" 14 days.)

Conception occurs within 24 hours of ovulation if the egg is met by a sperm. The fertilised egg splits into two cells, which each split into two cells, and continue to multiply in this way. By five days after conception the approximately 20 cells have formed into a ball shape called a morula. The cells have been identical up till now, but start to change according to what part of the baby's body or of the placenta they are destined to be. In another day or so this group of cells moves from the fallopian tube to enter and "plant" itself in the uterus: the phase of implantation.

Mum is still unaware that anything particularly special is taking place in her body, though at the end of the week she may possibly notice implantation bleeding.

Week 4: The group of cells about 4mm wide burrows into and fully implants in the uterus over about six days, and baby starts to be supported by mum's blood supply while continuing to develop in an extraordinary way. The cells continue to multiply and are now in the form of a flat disc with three layers: the first layer or endoderm will form most of the internal organs; the second layer or mesoderm will form the bones, reproductive organs, muscles and heart; the third layer or ectoderm will form the brain, skin, hair, facial features, and spinal cord. While this is happening, the outside of the bundle of cells is also dividing into two parts which become the basis for the placenta and the amniotic sac.

Mum may still be completely unaware, or she may have noticed some implantation bleeding (perhaps confusing it with her period, or perhaps not). With implantation complete by the end of the week, it's possible she'll start to notice other symptoms, though for many pregnant women the symptoms don't start for another week or two. If she is charting her fertility and normally has a luteal phase of less than 14 days, she will notice that this time it is longer and probably start wondering if she's pregnant. Around now a mucus plug forms in the cervix to close off the uterus from infection.

Wow!!! SO MUCH GOING ON! It blows my mind every time I think about it, just how incredible a process this is! And to think that I went from one day to the next...and suddenly there is a new life inside my body, a new baby, a whole new person developing with a whole new personality!! What an amazing design!!

What am I doing to prepare?

There are so many things to think about! Last pregnancy I called my preferred healthcare provider the very day I tested positive so I could register an expression of interest. This time since I tested early, and we're moving house, I'm going to wait an extra few days. Regardless, it's definitely high on my list of priorities! Choosing place of birth and provider early on and getting everything lined up for that, ensures your best chance of ending up with your ideal situation. Things can change during pregnancy of course, if complications arise, but I'd rather have my ideal locked in and then have to fall back to something else, rather than being forced into a plan B just because I was too slow and my plan A was booked out.

A favourite resource

Spinning Babies is for sure one of my top 5 resources I would recommend to any pregnant woman. They focus particularly on achieving optimal positioning of mother and baby during pregnancy and birth, to ensure an easier labour and birth, with many exercises and techniques which address this. However, they have a holistic approach to pregnancy, with many resources available.

This is their "Pregnancy Week-by-week" resource. You can sign up for email updates according to what week of pregnancy you are in.

And that’s it for this week! 🌿💛

[Image credit: Baby feet photo by Shannon Pitter on Unsplash]